Winged Cherry Burl Crotch Bowl

[Steve Schlumpf]

Back in January, Pete Jordan, sent me his McNaughton Center saver to try out and in the box he shipped it in he included this fantastic cherry burl crotch. I haven’t had the chance to try out the center saver yet (I hope to soon) but I did grab this chunk of wood and throw it on the lathe just to see what was there. The wood was all bark on one side but, typical for cherry, I could see lots of checks. Managed to turn out quite a few of them but left many of them as-is for effect.

This piece is 11” long x 8” wide x 2 ¾” high x 3/16 to ¼” thick. Sanded to 320 and has only one coat of Minwax Gloss Wipe-On Poly at this time. I plan on giving it 1 or 2 more coats of poly but only enough to protect the wood as I am not going for a high gloss finish.


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As always, I appreciate any comments, critiques and/or opinions!

Thanks for looking!

[Bernie Weishapl]

Wow Steve that is a beautiful bowl out of some awesome looking wood. Well done.

[Bill Wyko]

Steve that is just down right incredible. Great job as always from you.:) Your photography is fantastic too.

[Alan Trout]

Pretty cool Steve. I like it.

Alan

[Dave Bureau]

That is VERY cool!

[Tony Greenway]

Steve, this bowl is a prime example of your fine ability to bring the best out of a piece of wood.

[Jerry Rhoads]

That looks wonderful Steve

Jerry

[Don Carter]

Cool looking bowl, Steve. How did you turn the bottom?
I love the wood and I agree with you on the finish.

All the best.

Don

[Bob Hallowell]

Steve that's great! I have always seen these as bowls but never a hf. Very cool.

Bob

[Bill Bolen]

Great use of a fine piece of wood Steve. Love the form you have chosen...Bill..

[alex carey]

Wow nicely done. That is a beautiful piece.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Thanks for the kind words everyone - I do appreciate it!

Don - I used a donut chuck to hold the turning as there were to many worm holes, cracks and voids to use the vacuum chuck. Removed the tenon and made a slight recess for the foot.

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Wow Steve :eek: :D
That is one interesting piece of wood turned into a bowl Steve, from my experience that must have looked pretty rough before you started on it, but there was a diamond in the rough, and you pulled it out of it. :)
There's a lot going on in that piece, very well done Steve, thanks for showing :D

[Jarrod McGehee]

Well Steve that sure is quite some piece. I really like it and You ARE the man! Nice job on the bowl. Now just get to using the saver tool.

[Jim Kountz]

Steve I think this is perhaps the best thing Ive seen on here in a while. Beautiful job with this one, you have a great eye for form man!!

[Lionel Mercier]

Very interesting piece !
Two questions:
did you let the holes empty ?
What is a donut chuck ?
Very Very nice bowl,
Lionel

[Toney Robertson]

WOW. Nice execution on a tough piece of wood.

Excellent job.

Toney

[curtis rosche]

awsome bowl

[Jeff Nicol]

Steve, I love the little eyes in the burl section looking out at the world for the first time! Very cool design, very SCI-FI!!

Jeff

[Tony De Masi]

Stunning work as usual Steve.

Tony

[Mike Lipke]

Steve,
That had to be pretty out of balance the whole time you were turning it.
Did you just turn it at slower speeds, or put more sand bags on the lathe and spool it up? My 1642 starts getting pretty jumpy whith stuff like this, especially with the gouge cutting wood, then air, then wood, as it spins around. Love the form of the piece, and have a red elm crotch I'm staring at right now.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Thanks everyone!

Lionel - I left all worm holes, voids and cracks as is because I like the 'natural' effect it gives a piece. I know that if you do a search here for 'Donut Chuck' you will find lots of info - but I found this article to be very helpful: http://azwoodturners.org/DoughnutChuck.pdf

Let us know if you have any questions - should you decide to build one yourself!

Mike - the piece was very out of balance and I had to run the lathe at a very slow speed the entire time. I do have a box with 7 bags of concrete to add some ballast to my lathe but it will still shake when things are this far out of round. Max speed I managed with this piece was 650 rpm. Normally, I would like to turn this size around 850-950 rpm.

[Ben Gastfriend]

Steve, your work just keeps getting better and better. You've succeeded in combining a winged bowl, a natural edge bowl, and a hollowform in one great piece. This form shows off the figure of the wood really nicely. Your stuff is always top-notch, this is no exception!

[Pete Jordan]

Wow Steve!

I knew you would do it well, but you over achieved!

Great job Buddy!

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Steve.....Gnarlified piece of cherry crotch! Well done Sir!

[Curt Fuller]

Wow Steve, that's incredible!

[Jack Mincey]

Steve,
Very pretty piece. I might have to remember this style for some of the burl I have stocked up.
Jack

[Burt Alcantara]

Steve,
That's a beautiful piece of art. I like the finish as it appears in the photo.

Burt

[Maylon Harvey]

Dam Steve that is pretty, both the wood and what you did with it.

[Brian Effinger]

Wow Steve, that is awesome. I love the figure of the wood, and your form just highlights it and doesn't detract. Great job! :)

[Ron Hipp]

Steve, great piece well done.....

Ron

[Dewey Torres]

Steve,
I missed this one yesterday but WOW. You will now have me researching the McNaughton systems and doughnut chucks. The vortex is strong.

[Eugene Wigley]

What a great bowl!! Thanks for posting it. I have been throwing away the crotch wood that was not big enough for a bench or a table. I gotta try one of these.

[David Christopher]

Steve, that is one great looking bowl.. that must have been scarry to turn

[Tim Cleveland]

Beautiful piece, the form really brings out the best in the wood.

Tim

[Jeff Paxton]

Steve,

Great job! You really raised the bar with that one. I would love to do something like that someday. Don't you just love working with cherry, you really brought out the very best of that piece. Very inspiring!

Jeff

[Keith Burns]

Nice one Steve. I like the way you did the win in the middle of the form. Great stuff.

[steven carter]

Steve,

Not much I can say that hasn't been said already, simply beautiful. This bowl gives you so much to look at that you can look at for a long time!

Steve